We Analyzed 100 Million Headlines. Here’s What We Learned (New Research)
It is difficult to overstate the importance of headlines. A good headline can entice and engage your audience to click, to read, and to share your content. In many cases headlines are the thing that is shared rather than the article. So you knew that. But do you know what makes an engaging headline?
To help answer this question we analyzed 100 million article headlines. We have set out below our findings from the research including the:
While there is no magic formula for creating a viral or popular headline, there are many lessons we can learn to improve our content engagement. We shared our findings with a number of content experts to reflect on the implications of the research for writers. We have included their expert thoughts and advice at the end of this post. We have also included a section on how you can analyze headlines yourself using BuzzSumo.
Note: This research looks at the most shared headlines on Facebook and Twitter which tend to be dominated by major publishers and consumer content. Thus the insights will be particularly interesting for publishers. We are undertaking separate research on engaging headlines for business to business content which we will publish later this year.
Most Engaging Headline Phrases: The Data
In our survey of 100m headlines published between 1st March 2017 and 10th May 2017, the three word phrases or trigrams that gained the most Facebook engagements (likes, shares, comments) were as follows.
Why The Data Will Make You Think Again About Headlines
In our sample the most powerful three word phrase used in a headline (by some margin) was:
“Will make you … “
This phrase “will make you” gained more than twice the number of Facebook engagements as the second most popular headline trigram. This was a surprise. When we started out looking for top trigrams, this one wasn’t even on our list.
So why does this particular trigram or three word phrase work so well? One of the interesting things is that it is a linking phrase. It doesn’t start or end a headline, rather it makes explicit the linkage between the content and the potential impact on the reader.
This headline format sets out why the reader should care about the content. It also promises that the content will have a direct impact on the reader, often an emotional reaction. The headline is clear and to the point which makes it elegant and effective.
Typical headlines include:
24 Pictures That Will Make You Feel Better About The World
What This Airline Did for Its Passengers Will Make You Tear Up – So Heartwarming
6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person
“Who Wore It Better?” Pics That Will Make You Laugh Out Loud
13 Travel Tips That Will Make You Feel Smart
See the most shared “will make you” headlines from the last year.
Emotional Headlines Drive Facebook Interactions
In our analysis we found that emotional phrases were consistently effective on Facebook as measured by the number of interactions. For example:
Tears of joy
Make you cry
Give you goosebumps
Is too cute
Shocked to see
Melt your heart
Can’t stop laughing
Many of the top performing posts with emotional headlines had image or video content although there were also story posts. Below is an example video post.
Despite the strong performance of emotional posts, content writers increasingly have to be careful in using emotional and sensational language. In May 2017 Facebook announced it will demote “headlines that exaggerate the details of a story with sensational language” and which aim “to make the story seem like a bigger deal than it really is.”
Curiosity and Voyeurism Also Gain Facebook Engagement
Headline phrases that provoke curiosity and a sense of voyeurism also gained a high level of engagement on Facebook. For example:
What happened next
Talking about it
Twitter reacts to
Are freaking out
Top x songs
Readers are often curious about what is being talked about by people, what the top items are in a league table, or what is being said by people on Twitter about a topic or event. This type of content appeals to a reader’s sense of curiosity and voyeurism. If you are curious, here are the most shared posts in the last year that have “are freaking out” in the headline.
We would caution writers to avoid ‘what happened next’ style headlines. While they have previously performed well, Facebook now categorises headlines that withhold information as clickbait and demotes them. In my personal view this is a good thing and I hope we will see an end to such clickbait headlines.
Other Engaging Headline Phrases
Explanations
This is why
The reason is
These phrases are also linked strongly to curiosity. For example:
And this is why women live longer than men…
This is why you should be sleeping on your left side
We all want to feel that bit smarter after reading a piece of content. Explainer articles promise you an extra nugget of insight. In some ways they are similar to the “will make you” phrase headline as they make a promise about what you’ll gain as a result of reading the article.
Here are the most shared ‘this is why’ headlines of the last year.
Quizzes
Can we guess
Only x in
These phrases are used in popular quiz headlines, for example:
Can We Guess Your Real Age?
Only 1 In 50 People Can Identify These 16 Grammar Mistakes. Can You?
Quizzes remain an engaging format on Facebook. The first of these headline types is a quiz variation, it challenges you to answer to questions and to see if the quiz can then predict your age, level of education, job etc., based on your answers. These quizzes appeal to our desire to know more about ourselves and to prove we’re smart, we did grow up in the 80s, we are living in the right city, or whatever it might be. These quizzes are like mirrors, it’s hard to walk past with out looking at yourself. They are hard to ignore.
Tribal headlines
X things only
These popular headlines appeal to a sense of tribal belonging for example:
25 Things Only Teachers Will Understand
17 Things Only Moms of Twins Understand
9 Things Only Girls Who Grew Up With Older Brothers Will Understand
10 Things Only Night Shift Nurses Understand
Here are the most shared examples of ‘things only’ headlines in the last year.
We have seen a significant growth in tribal headlines, particularly politically partisan headlines. It is almost as if there is a duty on the tribe to share posts that support their viewpoints. We saw this in the US elections and we have seen something similar in the recent UK elections. These tribal headlines tend to gain a lot